Obsessed with blades: Teenager Guriyot Singh, pictured posing with a huge sword, has been jailed for seven years after stabbing a university student repeatedly in a savage gang attack

A knife-obsessed teenager has been jailed for seven years after repeatedly stabbing a university student who was trying to defend his girlfriend during a violent gang attack.

Gurjyot Singh, 17, was part of a gang of youths, some as young as just 14, when he stabbed Edward Vos five times and left him fighting for his life.

A court heard how Singh, who attacked his victim with a deadly lock knife, was obsessed with blades and posed for photos found on his computer and mobile phone while brandishing a sword.

Singh almost killed Mr Vos, a 19-year-old first-year undergraduate studying in Birmingham, after stabbing him in the elbow, chest and abdomen, the court heard.

He posed on the internet, brandishing a sword, with a knife tucked in his belt, had a knife hanging on his bedroom wall and photographs of other blades on his phone and computer.

Singh, from Rednal, Birmingham, led a gang of five teenagers, the youngest of whom was just 14 years old, who attacked Mr Vos, his girlfriend Sarah Laight and their two female friends as they walked along Birmingham’s Bristol Street at 1am on April 28, last year.

Ms Laight, who was about to leave university, had been celebrating handing in her final dissertation as the gang attacked her and Mr Vos and their friends on the way home.

Also jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday was 15-year-old Luke Timby, from Winson Green, who was sentenced to six years.

A 15-year-old boy from Rednal, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a two-year youth rehabilitation order, a two-year supervision order and a six-month home curfew.

A 14-year-old boy, from Rubery, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a two-year youth rehabilitation order. A 16-year-old girl, from Bournville, will be sentenced in the coming weeks.

Before the attack, Singh had been showing off a deadly lock knife with a three-inch blade as the gang of five drank at the 16 year-old girl’s home.

He even told detectives he had a knife in his shoe when they first questioned him and officers found pictures of other knives on his mobile phone and computer.

During the four-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, the jury heard how in the early hours of the previous morning the group had roamed the streets of Birmingham goading innocent passersby.

Left for dead: Edward Vos, 19, and his girlfriend Sarah Laight (both pictured) were attacked by a gang of youths, some as young as 14, as they walked home in Birmingham at 1am in April last year

Deadly: Singh stabbed Mr Vos in the chest, abdomen and elbow with this lock knife

As the group of students came out of a pedestrian subway, they were followed along Bristol Street by the gang who began shouting abuse at them.

The taunting quickly turned more sinister as the 16-year-old girl started telling Mr Vos how she was going to ‘batter’ his girlfriend before pulling her to the ground by her ponytail.

While on the ground, the young attacker straddled her victim and repeatedly punched her in the face and about the body before dragging her by her hair towards passing traffic.

At the same time, the four teenagers then set about her boyfriend, placing him in a ‘sleeper hold’.

Despite being outnumbered, the brave student managed to break free and throw the girl off Ms Laight, allowing her to run to safety.

Came to her rescue: One of the gang members pulled Ms Laight towards passing traffic by her hair, but despite being outnumbered Mr Vos broke free and threw the attacker off her, allowing her to escape

Angered by his victim’s actions, Timby held him from behind while Singh stabbed him five times in the elbow, chest and abdomen.

Despite his serious wounds, the student once again broke free and ran towards Belgrave Middleway pursued by two of the gang.

Only when the lad collapsed metres from his front door did the pair run off with Singh shouting triumphantly ‘I’ve stabbed him!’

As their attackers fled, Ms Laight made a frantic call to police in which she begged for help.

Officers were immediately dispatched and provided life-saving first aid until medics arrived and took the pair to hospital.

Mr Vos was placed in a medically induced coma with doctors fearing the worst as a vein near to his spine and leading from the back of his heart had been severed.

‘Shocking attack’: Singh (left) and his accomplice Luke Timby (right), who held Mr Vos while he was stabbed, have been jailed for seven and six years respectively

Meanwhile, a police helicopter was dispatched to hunt the gang, who were all caught in the hours following the attack.

When Singh was arrested, he told officers: ‘I may as well cough it now, I’ve got a knife in my shoe.’

When tested, the weapon was found to have traces of the victim’s blood on the blade.

Ranjit Lallie, mitigating for Singh, said what happened was a ‘moment of madness’.

Singh was jailed for seven years at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday after previously pleading guilty to wounding with intent, affray and possessing a knife.

Timby, 15, was sentenced to six years in a young offenders institution after he was found guilty of wounding with intent and affray.

The four other attackers were found guilty of affray and wounding.

Sentencing the four boys, Justice Judge Creed said: ‘This was a shocking attack. The victim went to his girlfriend’s rescue and was set upon suffering life-threatening wounds.

‘You show remorse but no-one showed concern for the victim on that night you simply ran away.’

Judge Creed deemed the case so serious that for the two main offenders he lifted the usual reporting restrictions which give anonymity to people under 18 years old.

Speaking after the case, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Wallis, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘Our determination to bring those responsible to justice reflects the seriousness with which West Midlands Police and society in general regards knife crime.’

"Perhaps the oddest thing about the experts and police chiefs and reporters and editors and tenured professors who constantly tell us that these black-on-white atrocities aren’t racially motivated, is that blacks don’t believe that for a second. They know that they are racially motivated, they say so, and they celebrate them for it."
- Nicholas Stix